Daughter of Barrio Azteca gang leader is sentenced

The 24-year-old daughter of a convicted Barrio Azteca gang capo has been sentenced to 1 1/2 years in prison for relaying messages between gang members, including her father.

U.S. District Judge Kathleen Cardone on Thursday sentenced April Cardoza, who pleaded guilty in October to a conspiracy to commit racketeering offenses.

Cardoza was among 35 alleged leaders, members and associates of the violent prison gang indicted last year after a wide investigation into the killings of three people linked to the U.S. Consulate in Juárez.

Federal prosecutors had alleged Cardoza assisted the violent gang, which is allied with the Juárez cartel, by providing communication to and from Azteca members, including her father, Manuel "Tolon" Cardoza, and facilitated money laundering.

Manuel Cardoza, one of the co-founders of the violent prison gang, is now serving a life sentence.

In June, the U.S. Marshals Service and several U.S. law enforcement agencies working with Mexican officials found April Cardoza living in Juárez with alleged Azteca member Ricardo "Nano" Zuniga, who was extradited to El Paso to face capital murder charges in connection with a double homicide outside a bar in Socorro in 2009.

April Cardoza was living as an undocumented immigrant in Mexico and was deported back to the U.S.

According to court documents filed by April Cardoza's attorney, Theresa Caballero, April Cardoza is the mother of three with no adult criminal history.

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Caballero argued in the motion that any involvement April Cardoza had in the rackeetering charge she admitted to "was not done to further the activities of the Barrio Azteca but rather to gain the love of her father. She now sees that this love and trust was misplaced."

Caballero also stated in the motion that April Cardoza already has plans for her future after her release from prison: She aspires to be a chef and has a job waiting for her at a fast-food restaurant once she is released.

April Cardoza's children are being cared for by her mother, Nilda Lopez.

April Cardoza was named in the same indictment that accused 10 Barrio Azteca members of carrying out street ambushes in Juárez on two vehicles leaving a consulate-linked children's party on March 13, 2010.

El Pasoans Lesley Enriquez Redelfs, an employee of the U.S. Consulate in Juárez, and her husband, El Paso County Detention Officer Arthur Redelfs, were killed in one vehicle. Their young daughter survived the shooting.

Also killed in a separate attack was Jorge Alberto Salcido Ceniceros, whose wife worked at the U.S. Consulate.

Ceniceros and the Redelfs had left the children's party in Juárez about the same time. U.S. authorities and some of the defendants in the case have said the shootings were a mistake.

April Cardoza was not charged in the slayings.

Of the 35 defendants named in the indictment, 33 have been arrested, 25 have pleaded guilty, and one committed suicide while jailed during his trial. Another defendant is still awaiting trial.

Six other defendants are pending extradition from Mexico, and U.S. and Mexican law enforcement officials are seeking two remaining fugitives: Luis Mendez and Eduardo "Tablas" Ravelo, who is named in the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list.

Adriana M. Chávez may be reached at achavez@elpasotimes.com; 546-6117. Follow her on Twitter @AChavezEPTimes

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